Mizuno increases brand value with PIM and DAM

Managing data throughout the organization required the input of various teams and contributions, with no clearly developed workflow. Product information management was based on Excel, and there was no common global product master. Without a concrete global data management strategy, the employees responsible for product management, marketing, and technical communication worked in silos using different systems and redundant data. 

The ecommerce department had its hands full collecting product information from various parts of the company and entering and updating it into the system. For this reason, the team did not have enough time to enhance the content and so the information Mizuno wanted to convey was not effectively communicated to consumers. For example, the product pages on the ecommerce site did not always provide enough information to fully express the product’s appeal, and in some cases, the content itself was incorrect.  

These inefficiencies prompted Mizuno to seek a solution to support their need for centralized management of product data and digital assets and streamline content processes. The company wanted to ensure the process remained transparent, using data from a single source to ensure international product communication was flexible, group-oriented, and fast. With these requirements in mind, Mizuno realized that integrated solutions like Product Information Management (PIM) and Digital Asset Management (DAM) were necessary to solve the challenges they faced.

Requirements

Mizuno needed an end-to-end solution that would enable them to onboard and consolidate product data from multiple departments and international operations, improve data quality, and publish consistent information across all channels. The solution had to be able to support the following:

• Maintain consistent, accurate, and complete master data — supported by fixed workflows for quality assurance and automation processes
• Configure attributes and assign roles, as well as create workflows and business rules to ensure compliance
• Reduce the time and cost associated with product information management to focus on the core business
• Centralize all essential product content: datasheets, ecommerce, print catalog, price lists, etc.
• Automate distribution of up-to-date, relevant, and properly localized content to accelerate time-to-market
• Provide global support and align the different regions by ensuring all authorized users can independently access current product data and datasheets
• Ensure customers always receive reliable, high-quality content regardless of the country or channel

Implementation began in the winter of 2019, starting with delivering product images and marketing assets through DAM (Digital Asset Management). The system was first introduced for specific product categories and sales channels. About a year later, a unified format for providing PIM information to overseas sales agencies dedicated to footwear was implemented. Most Mizuno products are on a six-month cycle and the upstream product delivery schedule also runs on that cycle, so the introduction of PIM was focused on aligning with it.  

By 2022, the company started managing information for all products in Japan.  This enabled Mizuno to significantly reduce the workload of the product entry process in its ecommerce department. However, the most challenging part of the implementation phase was unifying the product information to create a central hub connecting each region.  

The management of product information for all domestic products including the oversight of footwear and apparel information in Europe, kicked off in April 2023. Presently, the expansion is steadily advancing into sales bases in Asia, with the ultimate goal of completing global deployment for the entire company by the fiscal year 2025.

Mizuno also achieved its goal of providing different departments and branch offices with quick, secure, and simultaneous access to a central system while ensuring transparent versioning of all documents. Thanks to data centralization and a more consistent data enrichment workflow, Mizuno's teams have saved considerable time on daily tasks. Additionally, all authorized users can independently access current product data and datasheets.

Overall, Contentserv has helped Mizuno achieve improved efficiency, scalability, and accuracy in product information management, supporting the company’s ongoing success. Partnering with Contentserv, Mizuno is now able to bring products to market faster by onboarding, managing, and publishing data in a streamlined and efficient manner. The centralized data structure allows Mizuno to move forward with new projects and expand the use of PIM and DAM throughout the organization more confidently.

Moving forward, Mizuno envisions three key prospects for the future. Firstly, the company aims to continue to leverage Contentserv to create a consistent brand image. Secondly, Mizuno seeks to enhance internal control measures to track all products with a high degree of accuracy. Finally, Mizuno looks forward to sustained success in its digital transformation goals, aiming to broaden the integration of other systems after the successful implementation of Contentserv, This will allow Mizuno to exceed customer expectations by linking buying experiences to marketing, sales, and service.